This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by EDWARDS, B. Articles by FOLEY, M. W. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Civil Society and Social Capital Beyond Putnam

East Carolina University

MICHAEL W. FOLEY

United States Institute of Peace

Both civil society and social capital have proven useful heuristics for drawing attention to neglected nonmarket aspects of social reality and constitute a needed corrective to narrowly economistic models. However, both break down, although in different ways, when treated as the basis for elaborating testable hypotheses and further theory. Civil society is most useful in polemical or normative contexts, but attempts to distinguish it from other sectors of society typically break down in unresolvable boundary disputes over just what constitutes civil society and what differentiates it from "state" and "market." Work by Robert Putnam and others has assimilated social capital to the civic culture model, using it as just another label for the norms and values of the empirical democratic theory of the 1950s. This strategy undermines the empirical value of James Coleman and Pierre Bourdieu's useful social relational concept.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Ganapati Critical Appraisal of Three Ideas for Community Development in the United States Journal of Planning Education and Research, June 1, 2008; 27(4): 382 - 399. [Abstract] [PDF]

				T. Thorlindsson, T. Bjarnason, and I. D. Sigfusdottir Individual and Community Processes of Social Closure: A Study of Adolescent Academic Achievement and Alcohol Use Acta Sociologica, June 1, 2007; 50(2): 161 - 178. [Abstract] [PDF]

				B. A. Misztal The new importance of the relationship between formality and informality Feminist Theory, August 1, 2005; 6(2): 173 - 194. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. Y. Weisinger and P. F. Salipante A Grounded Theory for Building Ethnically Bridging Social Capital in Voluntary Organizations Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, March 1, 2005; 34(1): 29 - 55. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. Monkman, M. Ronald, and F. D. Theramene Social and Cultural Capital in an Urban Latino School Community Urban Education, January 1, 2005; 40(1): 4 - 33. [Abstract] [PDF]

				L. A. Brainard Citizen Organizing in Cyberspace: Illustrations from Health Care and Implications for Public Administration The American Review of Public Administration, December 1, 2003; 33(4): 384 - 406. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. J. Boddewyn Understanding and Advancing the Concept of `Nonmarket' Business Society, September 1, 2003; 42(3): 297 - 327. [Abstract] [PDF]

				P. Norris The Bridging and Bonding Role of Online Communities International Journal of Press/Politics, July 1, 2002; 7(3): 3 - 13. [PDF]

				P. Norris Social Capital and the News Media International Journal of Press/Politics, January 1, 2002; 7(1): 3 - 8. [PDF]

				M. Osgood and B. N. Ong Social capital formation and development in marginal communities, with reference to post-Soviet societies Progress in Development Studies, July 1, 2001; 1(3): 205 - 219. [Abstract] [PDF]

				T. Rotolo Trends in Voluntary Association Participation Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, June 1, 1999; 28(2): 199 - 212. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. A. BOOTH and P. B. RICHARD Civil Society and Political Context in Central America American Behavioral Scientist, September 1, 1998; 42(1): 33 - 46. [Abstract]